Free Republic

Though versatile, compact, and reliable, the Thompson/Center Encore is not a gun one would instinctively associate with state-of-the-art technology or truly exceptional accuracy. Well get ready for a paradigm shift. Richard VanH's 6BR Encore raises the accuracy bar for break-open rifles. This rig may be plain on the outside, but it's seriously tricked out on the inside. Richard's Encore features a chamber exactly matched to his loaded ammo--a chamber cut with an electrical spark, not a conventional reamer. With a precisely-machined lug and oversized hinge-pin, lock-up is ultra-tight. Encore/Contender guru Mike Bellm (who knows as much about Encores as anyone...

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Fifteen British Royal Marines on patrol in the Persian Gulf have been "seized" by the Iranian navy, the British Ministry of Defense said. The personnel from the HMS Cornwall frigate were surrounded by Iranian navy vessels after completing a routine inspection of a merchant ship, the ministry said in a statement. They were then escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian waters, it said. The Marines were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," the ministry said in a statement on Friday. A U.S. military official who monitors the region told CNN...

SHANGHAI, China — Alongside food and fire crackers, Chinese are adding a new item to their lunar New Year shopping: Adult diapers. Sales have soared ahead of the holiday as travelers prepare for long trips home aboard trains so crowded that even the toilets are jammed with people, newspapers said Tuesday.

As a DirecTV subscriber with DVR and a parent of thre small children, I often scan the movie channels for children's movies to tape for my children. I rarely allow the to watch broadcast television due to the content of commercials. Several weeks ago, I TiVo'd "Finding Nemo" on the Encore Channel for my two youngest children, age 3 and 4. What I got along with this RATED G movie was surreal. When the movie was over and the credit began to roll, Encore does what it always does and cuts the screen in half to run promos for other...

MOSCOW, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's FSB (Federal Security Service) has exposed a network of Al-Qaeda in its territory (the North Caucasian region), FSB director Nikolai Patrushev told the executives of the leading Russian media at a meeting in Moscow. Members of the terrorist network have been established "and now we have to neutralize their activity," he said. Mr. Patrushev noted that the FSB and other law-enforcement agencies had detained over 900 militants. The FSB has defined a number of them presenting the worst danger to Russia - Basayev, Maskhadov, Udugov, Umarov, Gochiyayev, Khalilov, Abu Havs, Abu Tari. "We...

RAPPER Eminem’s new album Encore has been leaked on to the internet. The Real Slim Shady star’s hotly-anticipated fourth album was stolen nearly two weeks before its release date. The theft has sparked panic at his record label Interscope who have brought forward the worldwide release date. An illegal website called RNS put the entire album on the net two days ago. Thousands of fans instantly downloaded it and could pass it on to countless others. It could lose the 32-year-old rapper MILLIONS of pounds in royalties from CD sales. Interscope bosses were locked in meetings all day yesterday. They...

For years, women have been asking, "When?" They got their answer this week when a small New Jersey pharmaceutical company announced that it was shipping out new supplies of the Today Sponge, a popular over-the-counter method of birth-control that was discontinued in 1994. Within a day, a Canadian Web site set up to distribute the sponges received so many hits that it crashed; the operators set up a new site to accommodate the thousands of new orders and posted a notice on the original begging for patience. About 1,000 women who had preordered the sponges as far back as two...